According to the story in the Wall Street Journal, “In its decision, the appeals court said it was unfair to give Mattel the Bratz line, because its value was “overwhelmingly” created by MGA.  In addition, the court said that in any new trial the district court should address whether Mattel owned Mr. Bryant’s ideas under his contract.”

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In a nutshell, the criteria are:  Is it Fun?, Is there a Reward?, Is it Challenging?, Is it Non-Frustrating?, Does it have Repeat Play Value?, Is there “Magic” to the game.

I love this kind of stuff.  When we manufacture a board game, we want our customers to be successful.  Asking questions of this type are certainly important to the process.

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CPSC Extends Stay of Enforcement for Testing and Certification of Lead Content in Children’s Products Until December 31, 2011

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted 4-1 on January 31, 2011 to extend the stay of enforcement for testing and certification of lead content in children’s products (except for metal components of children’s metal jewelry) until December 31, 2011.

Starting on December 31, 2011, manufacturers and importers of children’s products that are subject to the lead content limit must have the appropriate certificates that indicate that their products have been tested by a CPSC-approved third party laboratory, in order for their products to be sold in the United States.

Despite the stay of enforcement on testing and certification, manufacturers, importers and retailers of children’s products must continue to comply with the federal restrictions for total lead content. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) requires that all children’s products have no more than 300 parts per million (ppm) of lead content. The lead content limit will drop to 100 ppm on August 14, 2011, unless CPSC determines that it is not technologically feasible to establish this lower limit for a product or product category. The CPSIA also establishes a limit of 90 ppm for lead in paint and surface coatings.

The stay of enforcement does not apply to the 90 ppm limit on lead in paint and surface coatings or to the current 300 ppm limit on lead content in metal components of children’s jewelry. Certification based on third party testing is currently required for children’s products in these categories.

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Jan 27^th, 2011 CNY Shanghai Port Situation

–Customs computer was congested these days due to over capacity of the export entry.

–Most of the express pouch companies are short of manpower for pouch delivery, shipping documents will be delayed minimum 2 days extra sent from shippers.

Same old problem every year before Chinese New Year Holiday even worse this year:

–All the factories want to clean up the cargo and close for the long holiday early.

–Truck drivers left earlier for the holiday due to the critical train tickets, some left duty two weeks ago.

–Heavy congestion at the terminal and container yard, pick up and deliver a container need 4 time extra hours.

–Some carriers re-scheduled the cut off time and terminal opening hour due to the over booking.

–Many shippers ask us to arrange the trucking drayage at the very last minute as they can not find the trucker any more or simply dump the cargo into our w/h for container loading.

–Another heavy snow storm will start tonight, the traffic on the high way and local will be further messed up.

–Space for most of the carriers was fully booked until week 6.

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Often we see start-up board game companies that think they’ve completed their game design before the board game production final component sizes or Board Game Printing specifications have been decided.  It’s fantastic for the graphic designers if they happen to be working on cost-plus or an hourly rate.  But, it can be costly for you.

Please talk to Paragon Packaging first.  We provide templates and will even guide the designer through the process.  Most graphic designers don’t make a living designing board games, thus they may not have a lot of experience with boxes, game boards, and cards.  We will help.

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Paragon Packaging, Inc. introduces a brand-new program built to provide world-class retail store-quality production at nearly the price to print 100 paperback books in less than the time it takes ships to sail from Asia to the U.S.

BoardGameProductionOnDemand.com

• Free Expert Advice
• Free On-going Consultation
• Made in USA (some small game parts may be imported from Europe)
• Production runs from 500 to as few as 100
• Top quality production, same materials as our standard production
• Design for digital printing
• Your custom artwork reviewed by our graphic designer to assure print quality
• Press preparation costs and proofs included
• No additional tooling costs
• Product can be ready within approximately 4 weeks of your order
• Games warehoused and shipped with the only additional cost for per game shipping charge
• Web commerce marketing availability
• Eventual On-going design and support for mobil apps

Board Game Components all Included:

• Two piece rigid retail display game box
• Die cut white quality corrugated platform
• Turned-edge style game board
• Game cards
• Score pad
• Pencil bag
• Game piece bag
• Rules Sheet
• Custom sizing and additional components can be added for extra charge

Your board games manufactured for as little as under $6,800…..

Your custom graphics, your high-quality USA made board game….

25, 50, or 100 Cards Per Deck (additional cards can be quoted)

100 Games, 200 Games, or 500 Games

Also available, of course, our standard runs, now lowered to 1,500 Minimum Order just for you.

Web site: www.boardgameproductionondemand.com or www.paragonpackaging.com

Email: info@paragonpackaging.com

Phone: 707-786-4004

Call or email.   It’s time to make this happen.

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